1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to the field of computerized searching of information, including systems and method for providing a search engine. In particular, and without limitation, the present disclosure relates to systems and methods for providing suggested search queries for a received search query based on stored search queries and URL data, categorizing search queries and URLs, and to providing contextual spelling correction.
2. Background Information
Efficient retrieval of information (e.g., web pages and/or other online content) using a search engine requires a search query that specifically and accurately reflects desired information. Such an initial search query, if reasonably accurate, helps reduce the number of refinements to the search query necessary for the search engine to provide the desired results to the user.
However, for various reasons, the user may provide an initial search query that is short and vague, and as such, may not accurately represent the desired information. For example, the user's understanding of the desired information may be limited, causing the user to specify a search query that is not representative of the desired information. Additionally, or alternatively, the user may not realize that an initial query is insufficiently specific to return the desired information. As such, users must often generate several iterations of refined or reformulated search queries before the search engine returns the desired information.
Search engines can maintain “query-click logs” that record each query provided to the search engine and a uniform resource locator (URL) associated with the resulting link, or links, that a user clicks in response to the provided search query. However, relationships between queries and clicked URLs records within these “query-click logs” are rarely used for generating suggested search queries.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for improved systems and methods for providing suggested search queries to a user based on, for example, previous search queries and corresponding URL click data. Such systems and methods may be implemented in computer-based environments, such as the Internet and network environments that provide online search engines.